A systematic presentation of the thought of the major Fathers and spiritual luminaries of the Christian East on the whole spectrum issues related to the spiritual life: the nature of God, cosmology, anthropology, the nature and means of repentance, purification and salvation, the virtues, stages of prayer, and contemplation. Take the ''systematic'' in the sub-title very seriously. This tome offers a thorough introduction to the world of eastern Christian spirituality, its terms, connections, and connotations, in which the edifice of all Christian belief is founded. Spidlik's Germanic rigor does no harm to this outline, and in fact reveals an inner logic in a tradition that many call ''mystical'' in order to avoid the labor of close examination. Spidlik is among the greatest living patristic scholars, and his careful, methodical approach makes the staggering range of material navigable. The fifty-four page bibliography of primary and secondary sources (for which the translator took many months to supply, when possible, available English editions) is a remarkably rich resource in itself. 473 pp.